Dear Reader -
Over the weekend I read an interesting article in the AARP Bulletin about older workers who are being forced to retire due to being caught in between a floundering economy and a “close to retirement” age. It seems that this generation of aging ‘baby-boomers’ has become the new throwaway generation!
I will come back to my favorite theme! It is time for the older, displaced worker to take control of his/her life. As Dennis Hopper once said, in one of his television ads, shuffleboard isn’t, necessarily, the peak experience of retirement. For example, this past weekend, I was able to get into my shop (amid some home maintenance and upgrade work being done – new windows) and turn some more pens to sell at the fall craft shows. I love the pursuit of a beauty that cannot be duplicated in a mass production environment.
I wish to encourage all – especially displaced older workers – to discover and/or develop a ‘marketable’ skill. Granted we might not be able to sell it to corporate America. However, I still see people coming to craft and art shows wanting a unique and ‘hand-made’ product. I have discovered numerous customers willing to pay $20-$30 for a “one-of-a-kind” handcrafted pen to replace their “dollar BICs”! These are the people who cherish life and quality rather than simply “cheap” and disposable. I like to think that they purchase “non-disposable” goods from me, and my generation, because they do not consider us aging baby-boomers as a disposable or throwaway generation.
I have posted a link to this same article for those of you, my dear readers, who wish to see my inspiration for today’s blog post.
Have a good week and my next post is still in the ‘thinking’ stage. It will be about the potential for a nationwide teacher “layoff”. May the Good Lord help our children!
DCPenman
I went to a couple farmers markets this past weekend and talked to several vendors trying to make up for lost wages from a corporate job, either from layoffs or retirement. It feels good to support their efforts, AND I even got higher quality products at often-lower prices.